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Sunday, February 08, 2009

We are planning to have chickens. The thought of fresh, organic and free-range eggs is growing in importance and will be a welcome addition to our food supply. There is a lot to learn and plans to draw up. We do not have a tremendous amount of space so planning where they should be sited is going to be an important consideration. If possible, we will lock them on a night-time and let them roam (with restrictions ....i.e. the vegetable plot is out of bounds) during the day. Talking to 'friends' on other forums we may consider Bantams as they tend to do less damage and produce well. I am currently drawing up plans for a chicken coop and enclosure that is fox proof......watch this space. The winter harvest continues to provide well with cauliflowers, Jerusalem artichokes and cabbage plentiful. Our annual delivery of manure has just arrived thanks to out farming neighbour Luis and his lovely old horse Toni. Two cart-fulls this week with more planned for a couple of weeks time. The soil is still very wet and therefore the potato planting and early onions will have to wait until the warmer and drier weather arrives. We continue to have daily walks - mainly to the cliffs near the village and occasionally to the nearby beaches for a bit of beach combing. My collection of 'raw' amethyst is growing and we have just learnt that there are old mines of Blue John nearby that we may explore in the near future. The tides have been exceptionally high this year and as a consequence the Bufones (blow-holes) on the cliffs have been spectacular. Winter has brought snow to 'our' mountain but never lower than 200 meters so it has not affected us at 47 meters. Violent storms have taken their toll along the north coast with many trees down and much roof and building damage. The latest cyclone, luckily, stayed out at sea but we still experienced winds of 190kph here in Asturias. The poor weather has given us an opportunity to catch up on jobs around the house and workshop and given Luis an opportunity to practice his techniques in mosaic making.